Bright Young Things discussion

Nancy Cunard is a fascinating character who seems to have lived a rich and varied life in her youth but ended up like so many Bright Young Things succumbing to alcohol and self-destructive behaviour.

I came across her when a character in the book I'm currently reading, which is set in 1930s London, goes to the Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Percy Street. When I tried to find out more about what this restaurant was like I discovered that Nancy Cunard was a frequent diner there with people like Nancy Hamnett, Jacob Epstein, Lytton Strachey.

Has anyone else come across her at all?

Like you, I've read references to her.


What's the book you're reading?

Nancy Clara Cunard (10 March 1896 – 17 March 1965) was a writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class and devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the 20th century's most distinguished writers and artists, including Wyndham Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Tristan Tzara, Ezra Pound and Louis Aragon, who were among her lovers, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Constantin Brâncuși, Langston Hughes, Man Ray, and William Carlos Williams. MI5 documents reveal that she was involved with Indian socialist leader VK Krishna Menon. In later years, she suffered from mental illness, and her physical health deteriorated. She died at age 69, weighing only 26 kilos (57 pounds), in the Hôpital Cochin, Paris.

More here...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_C...

Her mama the society hostess was arguably just as interesting, if a little long in tooth for the BYT designation...

"Maud Alice Burke (3 August 1872 – 10 July 1948), later Lady Cunard, known as Emerald, was an American-born, London-based society hostess. She had long relationships with the novelist George Moore and the conductor Thomas Beecham, and was the muse of the former and a champion of and fund-raiser for the latter. She was a supporter of Wallis Simpson during the British abdication crisis of 1936, vainly hoping for a court appointment. The Second World War ended her era of private patronage and lavish hospitality."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maud_...
http://theesotericcuriosa.blogspot.co...

I've read some of her poetry and have read the small biog in this publication from the National Portrait Gallery:

http://www.npg.org.uk/business/public...

I definitely want to read more on her.

how wonderful Ruth that you've discovered her. Ta for the info Nigeyb and Miss M. Very colourful ladies!

By the way Ruth, you said Nancy Hamnett. Did you mean Nina Hamnett, writer, artist, model and muse of many other Soho bohemians and 'Queen of Bohemia'?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_...

Roisin wrote: "I definitely want to read more on her. "



This gets good reviews on Amazon (more than a more recent biog)...



Nancy Cunard: A Biography by Anne Chisholm

Out of print but available secondhand for a modest price

Thanks Nigeyb - I forgot to put in the Wikipedia link, which has a nice lot of detail doesn't it.

The book I'm reading is An Expert in Murder. The main character is a fictional version of the detective fiction writer Josephine Tey. It's set around a theatre in St Martin's Lane.

^ Thanks Ruth - I look forward to your verdict

I really like that series, Ruth.

There's a fabulous cover of a book Daphne Fielding (wife of Xian and also part of that crowd) wrote on the Cunards - don't know about the book's quality, still on my wishlist, but I want that cover! ;)

I've been reading that series, too. I don't recollect offhand a reference to her. Although it has been some time since I read it. I think may have been my favorite of the series.

Great cover Miss M

Roisin wrote: "how wonderful Ruth that you've discovered her. Ta for the info Nigeyb and Miss M. Very colourful ladies!

By the way Ruth, you said Nancy Hamnett. Did you mean Nina Hamnett, writer, artist, model a..."

Oops - yes that's right. That'll teach me to check my sources!

Jan C wrote: "I've been reading that series, too. I don't recollect offhand a reference to her. Although it has been some time since I read it. I think may have been my favorite of the series."

It wasn't a direct reference Jan. I was checking out a location in the book and my search took a bit of a detour!

I've read two books that feature the fascinating Nancy Cunard, Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation and Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance and I enjoyed both of them.

I have a used copy of Nancy Cunard but haven't gotten to it yet.

Jaylia3 wrote: "I've read (two books that feature the fascinating Nancy Cunard) Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation"

Thanks Jaylia3, I've just been reading your five star review of Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation by Judith Mackrell...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I notice Bronwyn of this group also rated it five stars.

It sounds like a book many here would enjoy....

For many young women, the 1920s felt like a promise of liberty. It was a period when they dared to shorten their skirts and shingle their hair, to smoke, drink, take drugs and to claim sexual freedoms. In an era of soaring stock markets, consumer expansion, urbanization and fast travel, women were reimagining both the small detail and the large ambitions of their lives.

In Flappers, acclaimed biographer Judith Mackrell follows a group of six women - Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Tamara de Lempicka - who, between them, exemplified the range and daring of that generation's spirit. For them, the pursuit of experience was not just about dancing the Charleston and wearing fashionable clothes. They made themselves prominent among the artists, icons, and heroines of their age, pursuing experience in ways that their mothers could never have imagined, seeking to define what it was to be young and a woman in an age where the smashing of old certainties had thrown the world wide open.

Talented, reckless and wilful, with personalities that transcended their class and background, they re-wrote their destinies in remarkable, entertaining and sometimes tragic ways. And between them they blazed the trail of the New Woman around the world.

Nigeyb wrote: "Jaylia3 wrote: "I've read (two books that feature the fascinating Nancy Cunard) Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation"

Thanks Jaylia3, I've just been reading your five star..."

This was a group read in January 2011. Although we have re-read books. I didn't actually do much reading of the book at the time. I was still working then and was unable to hold books due to my arthritis at that point.

Nigeyb wrote: "Jaylia3 wrote: "I've read (two books that feature the fascinating Nancy Cunard) Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation"

Thanks Jaylia3, I've just been reading your five star..."


Sounds interesting. Just put it on reserve at my library. And the TBR pile continues to grow!

^ Ain't that always the way Lynaia

Lynaia wrote: "Sounds interesting. Just put it on reserve at my library. And the TBR pile continues to grow..."

Hope you enjoy it, Lynaia!